Depart

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /dɪˈpɑːt/

Definitions

1. To leave or go away from a place or person, or to deviate from an established course or standard
2. To leave a specific location or person, as well as to diverge from an anticipated path or norm
3. To exit a venue or individual, while also straying from a previously set trajectory or expectation

Etymology: Before it meant leaving a place, "depart" was a verb of division: to split something into parts. Its ancestor in Late Latin, "departiō," meant "to divide," built from "dē-," meaning "away from," and "partiō," meaning "to part or divide." The idea was of pulling things apart, the same root that gives English "part," "partition," and "apart." The word reached English by way of Old French "departir," which carried that sense of dividing or separating. Over time the sense shifted from splitting a whole into pieces to separating oneself from a group or place. A traveller who went away from a town was, in effect, parting from it, and that is the meaning English speakers settled on. The second sense in the modern meaning, straying from a set course or expectation, grows naturally from the same idea. To depart from a plan is to separate yourself from it, just as one parts company with a friend.

Synonyms: leave, exit, go, withdraw, set off

Antonyms: arrive, stay, remain